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(Light flour
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(Light flourish)
(Outdoor din)
(Bird squawks)
(Light upbeat jazz)
♪
Mena Massoud: In a desert of sequins,
flashing lights, casinos,
prime rib, and Hunter Thompson impersonators hoping
for the ether to take hold, one thing is true.
Vegas don't have much history.
(Blast)
I mean, we're always saying what happens here stays here,
so stories often fade to glimmers of nothing.
I'm telling ya, things get weird out here in the desert.
(Lively band music)
Which is too bad, cause the story I want to tell is the
story of a city famed for excess that's always in flux.
Transient, yes, but where there's a small mighty and
delicious plant-based scene that takes its visitors
to unexpected heights.
♪
Some say Vegas is the world's fanciest food court,
but there's no denying it's a hub
for high-end culinary enterprise
stuffed with celeb chefs and Michelin stars
these spot for tourists to overindulge.
Not to be outdone, the plant-based community has risen
to the challenge of providing over-the-top hangover food,
elegant entrees, sumptuous desserts, and even, yes,
vegan beef Wellington to gambler and teetotaler alike.
I got lucky in Vegas
sitting down with the top chefs from all over the world
who've made this culinary capital their home.
So get ready for an intimate glimpse into the kitchens and
lives of Nevada chefs and the occasional legend, and their
stories of the oasis in the desert that is.
Vegas, baby!
♪
I'm Mena Massoud.
I'm traveling across the world and eating my way through some
of the coolest cities to show you how beautiful meals,
talented chefs, and restaurateurs are making
plant-based living delicious and attainable.
So join me as I show you how the world is Evolving Vegan.
♪
Any time I get off the plane in Vegas, I head straight
to The Modern Vegan.
A community mainstay for six years and counting, this joint
is Vegas on a plate, serving up pure over-the-top decadence
created by the Modern Vegan herself, Gia Schultz,
who specializes in monstrous plant-based dishes inspired
by her mom's home cooking.
Mena: I had to come and support a hometown girl.
You're from Toronto.
I am.
So you're a Canadian, moved to Vegas, and opened
up this place.
Yup, that's what I did.
What are we making today?
So today we're going to make our posh chicken and waffles.
It's bougie.
Yeah, it's bougie.
There's a little bit of extra there.
Yes.
All right, let's get started. What's the first step?
So let's make our waffles first.
Mena: We start by mixing up flour and secret spices
with some not-so-secret soy milk.
So we'll whisk this up till
it's nice and smooth.
All right.
Here...
Thank you.
I was just going to say. I was going to offer.
Put some elbow grease in there.
Just to...
I was gonna...
I wasn't a gentleman.
But I am now.
I'm doing it now. Great.
So then we'll add in some blueberries.
Wow.
That's a good amount.
Yeah.
Mena: Once we get the batter all smoothed out, it's straight
into the waffle iron.
You came up with all these items.
Yes.
Where did you...
I made all these recipes.
Where did your love of cooking come from?
I always loved cooking.
Like, I learned how to cook for my mom.
Okay.
Watching her.
And prior to going vegan,
I would, like, go out to eat all the time
and when I went vegan going out to eat became a huge pain.
Right.
And the food always sucked.
So when I went vegan and I started cooking vegan
it tasted just like what I'm used to eating.
So that's when I was like, I should open a restaurant.
And then I did.
And--
Here we are. There we are.
Alright, so we've got our waffles waffling--
Okay. ...in the waffle maker.
They're waffling.
And you mentioned some truffle potatoes.
Yes.
Mena: Gia uses Russet potatoes, skin on, for extra crunch.
And we get them frying.
Now we're going to make our Louisiana fried chicken.
Put these on. Yes, ma'am.
We're going to crush our corn flakes.
Here we go.
Do it again.
Okay.
With your hands. Alright, alright.
I'm just taking liberty here.
Okay.
This is my own style, Gia
Okay, got it, got it, yeah.
Mena: We whip up some southern inspired batter
and start dipping the soy vital wheat gluten chicken.
Now we're going to throw that in the fryer.
Mena: The chicken goes in and the potatoes come out
for some bougy-ing up.
Potatoes get truffle. So we have white truffle oil.
Very nice.
So we'll put a generous amount of truffle oil on there.
The bougy-- Yeah.
...the bougy oil.
That's why they're called Posh.
Mena: To round out the dish,
Gia fries up asparagus and bacon
because fried chicken and waffles
and truffle potatoes aren't enough.
Okay, now let's build the plate.
Are you ready? Yes.
Okay, let's do it. This is my favourite part.
Okay.
It's always what I'm waiting for.
We're going to get our potatoes on the plate.
And is this a typical serving?
Yes. You're kidding?
No, I'm not.
Mena: Gia don't play about portions or her waffles.
Ta-da! Look at that.
Yeah. Okay. On top.
We're going to put our chicken on top.
Oh my goodness.
So now we're going to come in with our maple syrup.
Just drizzling Canadian culture all over the dish.
(Laughs) Yes. Alright.
Top it with the bacon.
Oh wow. Okay.
And then we're going to grab our top waffle.
You getting both waffles?
Yes. This is insane.
And we stab it like that.
Oh my goodness.
This is vegan butter.
Gonna make a nice ball of this.
Then we're going to top it with our asparagus.
Okay.
And then we're going to hit it with maple syrup again.
Of course you are.
And then it's ready.
Look.
People think we eat salads.
Yes.
Does this look like a salad to you?
Look at this. It's insane.
Wow, I can't wait to dig in.
(Straining) It's really heavy.
There we go. Alright.
Let's head out there.
Mena: Wow.
Gia: Thank you.
Look at that.
Everything is honking big here.
Yeah.
Where did this idea come from?
Because obviously everything you do at The Modern Vegan
is go big or go home.
So it's just like indulgent food, you know.
People come here to pig out
and have your cheat day and just indulge.
And this is Vegas, baby.
Yeah. We don't skimp out on anything.
Alright, let's dig in. Okay.
I don't even know how to do that.
I'm swiveling off my chair trying to cut into this.
(Laughter)
♪
Cheers.
♪
♪ ♪
It taste as good as it looks.
Yeah.
You've got that nice crisp on the outside
and that soy is really gives it that kind of chicken texture.
Yeah.
Let me get some of these potatoes.
Mmm.
And so you've been in Vegas quite a long time now.
Yeah.
How have you seen Vegas and the off-strip culture change?
The way that it's going right now,
I feel like almost every single restaurant in Vegas
has like a vegan option.
What I'd like to see is more restaurants
follow that trend 'cause a lot of the food on their menu
can easily be made vegan, like really easy.
Mena: What's not easy is making a dent
in this behemoth waffle tower.
Time to get to work.
This is, this is as Vegas...
(Laughs)
...as it gets.
Here.
(Laughter)
There's more food?
What is this?
This is our Died and Gone to Heaven dessert.
It is a deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Cheers.
Cheers to you, Gia.
Cheers.
Way to go big.
Thanks so much for coming by.
Of course.
Mm!
♪
(Jazzy piano music)
♪
Mena: After a monster breakfast,
my next stop is a monument
to an original Vegas legend,
Liberace.
One of his final projects
was this multi-room resto lounge
filled with the bedazzled glitz and schmaltzy charm
the pianist made famous,
with all the sequins.
It's been converted to a fully vegan restaurant
by restaurateur Sacbe Meling.
It's the perfect place
to meet a living Vegas legend.
But first, the tour.
Sacbe: Liberace, he will sell out all the venues
wherever he will play.
He was a pop star of the day.
Oh wow. So, he's so Vegas OG.
Yeah, he is totally.
And then I see you actually have
another couple of rooms in there.
Sacbe: That's right.
Mena: Further in, the wine bar,
designed and built back in the 1980s.
Sacbe: Vegas, unfortunately, doesn't keep history.
It's continuously revolving.
So, there's very few places
that still have history, and this is one of them.
Mena: These walls hosted a veritable Who's Who
of American icons,
with Liberace entertaining at the keys
and the kitchen.
Sacbe: Liberace had a cookbook.
Not a lot of people know this.
Seriously?
What we're doing is we're actually veganizing that book.
Mena: Onto the piano room.
Oh, whoa!
This is a completely different vibe.
Sacbe: It is.
It's actually where Liberace
liked to entertain people, play the piano.
Literally, it is a piano bar.
Mena: You got the piano keys on the actual bar there.
That's cool.
This is the replica of his piano,
so, famous crystal piano.
Mena: It's very cool.
I think this is the perfect place
for me to host Penn.
That's right.
The legend I'm meeting is renowned performer,
sceptic magician and vegan,
Penn Jillette.
Penn's an entertainer's entertainer.
He and his pal Teller
have played thousands of shows
in their nearly 50-year career,
including the longest-running
resident headline act in Vegas history.
Good to see you, Penn.
Good to see you, man.
Thanks for coming.
Thanks for having me.
You're a busy man, 'cause you're a Vegas local.
I'm a Vegas local now, yeah.
I think, actually,
after you've been here 25 years,
you can say you were born here.
I'm actually from Massachusetts.
I lived in New York City for a long time
and we were playing Broadway and so on.
Now I've lived in Vegas longer than anywhere.
And you actually spent time
in this very space that we're sitting in.
Yeah, yeah. Well, I knew Liberace.
Like in '85 or '86 we met him
and I love Liberace.
What was Vegas like back then?
In the '90s,
everybody came to Vegas ironically.
You would come to Vegas, you didn't drink martinis?
You'd drink martinis.
You didn't smoke cigars?
You'd smoke cigars.
And then you'd go see a lousy show.
Right.
And that was part of the whole experience.
It was not a show that you actually thought was viable.
It was a show that you, um,
you went with your friends to laugh about.
It was all ironic experience.
But we were the only act that you would go to,
to see in New York and you'd also see in Vegas.
Now, within a year of that,
there were a lot of acts that could play both places.
Mena: While we're chatting, the chefs are cooking up
Liberace-inspired, plant-based pastry concoctions.
Though Vegas wasn't always so food progressive.
Penn: In the '90s,
the good restaurants...
Yeah?
...were exclusively, you know, red sauce Italian,
or they were steakhouses.
That was what a restaurant was, and then slowly,
good restaurants started coming in.
And you also see that with vegan food.
You wouldn't have even considered
that a vegan would live in Vegas,
and now, you know, I go to
New York a lot, I go to L.A. a lot, I go to London a lot,
and, um, I think that Vegas is on a par with any of them.
Oh, there's our food coming.
Oh, look at this.
Hello, guys. This is an asparagus baked rap.
All right. Thank you very much.
Mena: All right, here we go.
Mmm...
That's really good.
The sauce makes it, I think.
Yes it does. Mmm.
Although, one of the things you discover with veganism
is that vegetables are actually pretty good.
Mm-hmm.
How did you come to veganism?
Like, how did that transition happen?
It started totally for health reasons.
My blood pressure was, like, you know, U.K. voltage.
And, um...
I was wicked sick.
'Cause I was incredibly fat,
I was, I was, I was about 350.
Yeah, you lost something like 100 pounds.
I lost, like, 120 pounds.
And I had decided to do this,
like, grown-up way of losing weight, you know.
Cut the portions a little bit and doo-doo-doo...
All that stuff that has never, ever worked
for one person in the history of the world.
Had a friend from NASA,
who is a brilliant scientist.
He said, "Well, I can take all the weight off you and no time."
And I said, "Oh, you can do that easily?"
He said, "Oh, no, no, no, no.
It'll be the hardest thing you've ever done."
And it was brilliant.
He made me
stop eating animal products entirely.
And after you haven't had
any animal products, none,
the cravings start going away.
It's amazing.
As far as the health
aspect, you know, it used to be,
if you saw a vegan doughnut
or a vegan cookie, it was so rare,
you had to eat it right then.
Right.
And you can do that anymore.
And you can now eat
completely unhealthily and still be vegan.
And, so I was gonna ask you about that,
because back when you were transitioning, right?
There definitely wasn't all these..,
No.
...different varieties and options.
Now, you can get vegan everything,
vegan burgers, vegan steak, vegan doughnuts.
Anything you want, you can get vegan.
So, what you think about that?
I think part of the reason I put on weight
is because I still have the mindset that,
if I'm eating vegan, I'm eating healthy.
But even-- oh, my goodness.
Oh, look at this.
Guys, we have some more plates for you guys.
Oh, thank you.
This is our version of Norwegian cake.
Norwegian cake!
And what is Norwegian cake typically?
Meatballs, essentially.
But it has different spices
the Norwegians use and stuff like that.
Wow.
So, it's pea protein and we made the meat in-house.
Right, enjoy, guys.
Thank you very much. Shut up. Let's eat.
(Chuckling)
Peas are the best thing in the world.
Mmm...
What's your favourite food in the world?
My favourite meal in the world,
which I'm not recommending,
it's wicked unhealthy,
is, you give me a jar of peanut butter
and a big bag of potato chips.
Together?
(Sighing)
Really?
Now, see, you agree to hear this, you try it,
you will soon also be 250 pounds.
(Laughing)
It takes no time.
But it is so good. It's so good.
♪
There's no way, I think,
that and non-vegan eating this
could really tell the difference.
Yeah, you know, I don't know anymore.
You know, I say to friends...
this tastes just like meat and they say, "No."
'Cause they remember stuff I don't remember.
You know what, I get told that, too,
and I think they're just lying to my face.
I really do.
Let's kill 'em.
Yeah, let's do it.
(Laughing)
Let's take 'em out.
♪
Sacbe: You guys ready for dessert?
Oh, yes! What's this?
This is vegan tiramisu.
So that probably has
a lot of caffeine in it, right?
It does.
Okay, I probably will eat very, very little of this then.
Okay.
Because, besides being vegan, I also don't drink any alcohol.
I don't drink any caffeine.
What are you doing in Vegas then!
What's going on here?
And I don't gamble.
What are you doing here? I don't gamble.
What do I-- Dude, I just work here, man
Both: Thank you so much.
I will try a little bit.
Yeah, just a little bit. We gotta get you wired.
You don't want to see me jacked up.
Yes, well, I appreciate you taking a bite with me here.
Oh, my goodness.
Mmm...
It's really good.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. What's amazing about this, really.
Is that creaminess.
The way we can get creaminess now.
And we're also getting away
from all desserts tasting just like coconut.
Yes.
I mean, even as recently as five years ago,
every single vegan dessert was just coconut.
What do you think Liberace would say
if he found out his place was turned into a vegan spot?
The only thing I ever heard Liberace talk about
in terms of food was your Polish food, you know,
which he really, really loved.
I think if you could convince him
that there had ever been a vegan stuffed cabbage,
he would've been okay with it.
He'd be okay with it.
Yeah, ha, ha...
He would not give up stuffed cabbage.
Listen, I want to thank you for your time.
Well, thank you.
You are the busiest man in town, seriously.
So thank you for taking the time.
Thanks a lot. It was a pleasure.
And it was a pleasure meeting you. Yeah, man.
♪
(Upbeat jazz swell)
Mena: When in Vegas,
you gotta hit one of the biggest
tourist attractions in the world.
The horizontal monolith of roulette and blackjack,
the strip.
For those on a plant-based diet,
this used to be a culinary wasteland,
but there's hope inside one of the largest hotels in town.
The first fully vegan resto on the strip
knows that after a few days in Vegas,
everyone needs some self-care.
Truth $ Tonic wellness Café,
run by chef Pete Ghione,
who puts me straight to work.
Pete Ghione: So, we're gonna make a chorizo frittata with
some roasted poblanos and avocado.
So, as we start, if you want to make our chorizo spice...
I'll walk you through the ingredients.
I'd love to.
Chef Pete's been executive chef at several major casinos
in Las Vegas in his 27 years in the biz,
but he also spent formative years
as a personal chef for cancer patients.
It drove his turn towards healthy cooking.
I take some firm tofu and I pressed it
for about 30 minutes to get the water out,
because water has no flavour.
Yes.
So we're gonna put that flavour back in.
Crumble that baby up.
So, we're gonna just tear it apart
and crumble it in here?
Pete: Yeah, so we're, like, mimicking-- typically chorizo
is Beef based or pork based, but we're gonna
use this protein base because we're trying
to infuse protein on protein.
'Cause you tell somebody you're vegan,
what's the first thing they ask?
You don't get enough protein.
Where do you get your protein, right?
So, from there, we're gonna add that garlic.
Nice.
Okay, and then let's take our spoon
and mix up those spices a little bit
and let's put two tablespoons of spice in there.
And it actually is starting to smell like chorizo would, right?
Because all chorizo really is, is sausage that's filled
with spices, anyway.
Spices and garlic, yep.
So move right into the poblano.
We're gonna rest this right on the flame itself.
So you can see it's already starting to jump
and you can hear that, that, that popping sound.
It's really...really delicious.
And that flavour's really gonna start to come out.
Once you start making this and start smelling the chillies
and the chorizo, you get freakin' hungry, right?
So gotta let you hurry up and eat!
Speaking my language!
Once the chili's roasted on the open flame, we have to peel off
the delicate outer skin for the frittata.
There you go. See, peels right off.
Oh yeah, it's peeling right off there, yeah.
Pete: You look like a barber.
Alright, yeah, exactly.
I do my lineup at home so, I'm used to it, yeah.
So I'm used to it.
I use a double-edged blade, so probably
sharper than this knife.
Yeah. I use a barber.
(Chuckles)
Mena: After dicing up the pepper, we start cooking
the frittata itself.
And then we're gonna add this chorizo that has just been
sitting and marinating.
Nice!
The star of the show.
And then we break it up.
So, the vegan egg product is actually made of mung bean,
so there's protein in it already.
Adding that tofu to it, season it with a little bit
of sea salt.
Mena: After seasoning, Chef adds some faux cheddar
and pops it in the oven.
Pete: The moment of truth. The moment of truth!
There it is.
Aww, that looks amazing!
Pete: And then to add a little bit more spice and flavour to
the dish, we got a little bit of our chipotle mayonnaise.
Mena: Very nice.
Pete: Nice work today!
Mena: Look at that! Thanks!
We can almost make some money off of this!
Thank you, Chef. That looks beautiful!
My mouth is watering.
We should go eat, let's go eat!
We should.
♪
It smells amazing, it looks amazing, and you've brought some
other goodies to the table.
So I love that, but first, this frittata.
♪
That frittata is fantastique!
There's a little bit of smokiness from that poblano,
and then the creaminess of the cheese and the avocado.
And I love the amount of protein from the tofu--
It really adds substance to this.
Yeah, I tell you what, if you want a strategy to eat,
you kinda eat that protein first and then you get more into the
carbohydrates because that protein will help you digest
those carbs a little bit slower.
You have all this knowledge when it comes to--
Really, food, and also nutrition.
Where does that all come from?
Like, when did you get into food?
I tell ya what.
To get to this point, you know, it was,
it was extremely long hours.
I started cooking when I was 15 years-old.
You know, working in conditions where it was like, 14 hours, 18
hours a day for months at a time.
I used to cook for, like, 20,000 people a day right,
in the big casinos in Las Vegas.
I was really hard on myself.
You know, I drank to cope with the stress, and I lived this
hard life with alcohol and painkillers.
And for me, I just learned--
It got to a point where I was like,
this doesn't work.
There's gotta be a better way.
Now I have a-- This, this really clear picture of how to take
care of myself, and how to take care of other people because
I really care about not only my guests, but the people around
us, and I could probably talk for hours about the ingredients,
the combinations, the time of day which we serve things
'cause how our body reacts and all that stuff.
But instead, we write a beautiful menu and put the food
on the plate and let people enjoy it,
and we've done all the homework.
Yeah, well thank you for sharing that.
I mean, I think it shows, right?
Because not only have you healed other people with food, but also
yourself, and so you know what it takes, you know, to put
something on the plate that's not just beautiful;
tastes amazing, but also is good for you and is really healing.
Yeah.
Mena: That's Chef Pete's mantra: Using his nutritional knowledge
and clean ingredients to create the tastiest,
healthiest meals possible.
Speaking of, this sandwich looks delectable!
What's this on the menu, here?
Pete: This is the lion's mane crab roll.
So that lion's mane is really representing that,
that shredded meat of that crab.
Yeah, and I see that.
I mean, it looks like shredded crab to me, honestly.
How do you eat this, what's the technique?
Oh baby, just tuck those ingredients in and--
Tuck 'em in?
And get that good bite, kind of mix a little bit of everything.
♪
Wow.
Time to wear it on your face like a badge of honor.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Yeah, the bread is phenomenal, it really compliments the crab,
or the lion's mane mushroom, in this case.
And all the toppings, right?
The onion, watermelon radish, jalapeno,
little bit of tomato in there.
Everything works so well together, that is phenomenal.
You get a lot of people coming in from the Strip, obviously.
What kind of clientele are you really seeing at Truth & Tonic?
A lot of just curious people.
And once they try it, I mean, we see guests come back day after
day for while they're staying here.
You party hard in Vegas and then you need a little bit of a
cleanse and, but you know, this cleanse is like,
it's just a bunch of really fresh ingredients.
Mena: Totally.
And to have a fully-fledged vegan restaurant right here on
the Strip shows just how much Sin City really is
upping its plant-based game.
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Mena: Ask a Vegas local about the best spots
to eat in town, and they're gonna point you
somewhere off-Strip.
So I invited one of the biggest names in vegan food,
cook book author Carleigh Bodrug,
to test-drive one of the ritziest off-Strip joints:
Saffron the Eatery.
You're a New York Times' Bestseller, you're one of
the most influential, you know, vegan people on the planet,
I would say.
How did that happen?
Like, I'm sure it was a slow build for you.
Yeah, so I have a journalism background, and actually,
when I went plant-based, I was living by myself,
working as a morning radio host.
Just was always somebody who was very curious.
So if I got onto a subject, which at this point was
plant-based eating, I would research the heck out of it.
(Sizzling)
Mena: As we catch up, the chefs at Saffron sizzle up
some apps made of, yup, fresh flowers.
And for you, it translated into your business as well.
Yeah!
So what was that process like?
It was having such an immediate impact on my health, and I just
felt like it was something the world needed to know about.
Mena: Carleigh struck a social media chord,
with millions of plant-curious followers
with her passionate take on vegan cooking.
I had no cooking experience, so I was kind of talking about
my journey going plant-based.
So you had the journalist background, but you didn't have
the cooking background at all?
I don't think, before that time,
I had ever had a vegan meal in my life.
Yes, and there we go, speaking of that, look at this! Wow!
These look so good!
Mena: We're starting with tempura-battered stuffed squash
blossoms, topped with chimichurri aioli,
and micro arugula.
Ah, it smells phenomenal.
Unreal.
♪
The flavour is just bursting.
Mmm!
Carleigh: ...in your mouth, so good.
Wow, wow. This is fantastic.
It's like perfectly fried,
you've got that tofu on the inside.
The sauce, I'm getting a little bit of garlic in there as well.
It's so inspiring to me when I try something like this as a
small plate, and you think about the components are entirely just
plants, like, plants from nature, and they taste so
delicious-- Like, how could people not love this
and be inspired to go plant-based?
So you started Plant U as a blog.
How did it explode into a New York Times'
Bestselling book?
So, I left my job, I took a chance, and then things
just started rolling.
I wrote it with the frame of mind that I wanted to write
the book that I wish I had when I went plant-based.
And it was meals that I kind of had grew up eating,
but in their plant-based versions.
So I had, like, pizza and Shepherd's pie, and burritos.
I think people were looking for something that was simplistic,
to help them transition.
I realised when I started going plant-based that it was very,
like, structured, militant, and there were so many rules, right?
And these rules made people feel like they couldn't mess up,
they couldn't revert.
I just think we need to drop the judgement
and all do the best we can
and inspire people to be more plant-based,
not come from a place of trying to control.
That's not benefitting anybody, I don't think.
Yeah, cheers to that. Cheers to that.
Amen.
Cheers to that.
♪
(Gasps)
Amazing dish. Here we go.
Saffron's feature red curry
is made with red pepper, zucchini, and eggplant,
garnished with a dollop of coconut cauliflower foam.
Mmm.
♪
Layered with flavours, right?
A lot of spices.
That's what I love about a curry.
Cauliflower foam.
That's not something I have ever seen in my life
and it makes it so creamy and delicious.
Like velvety in your mouth.
Yes, really, really good.
You started this incredible series that I personally love
that I thought was so innovative called Scrappy Cooking.
And in it, you take scraps of food and basically find
amazing recipes to make with them, so like, no waste.
It's actually the topic of my second book.
I want people to start having a conversation
about reducing their food waste.
So all of the recipes in the book are structured around
just using what you have on your fridge,
so they're super flexible.
This is your second book,
and I know how much work and effort goes into books.
What do you think the next phase is for you?
I never saw so many people making my recipes than when
my book came out and the impact, having people come up to me
and say, "I got your cookbook and I had type II diabetes
and I have been able to get off my medication
using exclusively your recipes."
And that to me is why I do this.
I want to inspire people to put more plants on their plate
whether that's going vegan or just simply eating
a plant-based meal every day, and writing books seems to be
the most impactful way that I found so far.
So I hope to keep writing them. I'd love to do a third.
Wow, it's dessert time.
A lot of people's favourite time.
Look at this. This is gorgeous.
Absolutely beautiful.
Mena: The Saffron dessert du jour
is an Earl Grey sponge-cake with edible flowers and vegan honey.
Phenomenal.
Mena: Yes.
It's citrusy, and that earl grey.
Mena: Mmm.
Carleigh: Very layered flavours there.
Yeah.
Wow.
It keeps going as you're, like--
there's so many different components to the dish.
I love that punch of tea.
It's like a London Fog in a dessert.
That's it. That's it.
Made into, like, a beautiful...
Mena: Dessert.
...beautiful ending to, like, an extraordinary meal.
Mena: Indeed.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
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Mena: One thing I love about Vegas:
you can get an extraordinary meal anytime you like.
And over at Chef Kenny's, they're serving dim sum
all afternoon and into the night.
I grabbed the chance to sit down with the legendary local,
Chef Kenny himself, to talk how he's managed to create these
typically meat-heavy bites with nothing but plants.
Kenny: Before we start,
I would like to do one thing.
Mena: Yes, of course.
We have to start the tea, for our culture,
then go for dim sum.
We have to ganbei. So yum cha.
Both: Yum cha.
Mena: Chef Kenny emigrated
to the U.S. from Malaysia in the early '80s,
and spent 30 years working kitchens
before opening his own restaurant.
He's been a driving force
behind the Vegas vegan movement for years.
This is an amazing spread of food.
Our menu, we have a hundred of items
so I just cooked a few of them today.
Mena: A hundred items?
Kenny: Oh yeah.
How do you keep up with all of that?
That's amazing.
Because I am a chef. Super chef.
Yes. A super chef.
Amongst his many culinary creations
are the pillars of dim sum.
These little dumplings and buns, all veganized.
And which one shall we start with, Chef?
Can't wait to dig in.
So you start with the shrimp har gow.
Mena: Har gow.
Kenny: Har gow.
Har means shrimp, har. Gow means dumpling.
Har gow.
So it's a small dumpling we call gow.
Mena: These har gows
are made out of konjac, a root vegetable that grows in Asia.
♪
Mmm.
Kenny: It's good.
That's wonderful.
Texture. It's all about the texture.
With the shrimp inside, it really tastes like shrimp.
Vegan food, I always put texture first.
So Chef, what does dim sum mean?
Okay, the name dim sum translates to Chinese.
Point to your heart. Point to your heart.
Point to your heart?
Yeah, the dim sum.
Okay.
Yeah, so you talk about the emperor and the empress.
They want to try something simple that's smaller.
So the chef said,
okay, so I'm making a little bit of everything for you.
They can try a little bit of everything.
In that time until now, restaurant making dim sum.
That's incredible.
Kenny: Then you try the siomai.
Mena: The siomai.
Kenny: The normal dim sum siomai,
they are pork...
Mena: Yes.
Kenny: ...and shrimp.
And should I eat this as is or dip it?
Yeah, yeah. Dip it in the sauce.
Mena: Right here?
Yeah.
Okay, a little bit of sauce.
♪
Mmm, yes. You see that?
All the different vegetables inside there.
You've got corn, carrots.
Is that a little bit of mushroom in there as well?
Kenny: Yes, yes.
Mena: Amazing.
And what is the skin on there?
'Cause that's different than this.
That is called wonton skin.
Wonton skin.
Wheat starch.
Different texture altogether.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
When did the journey to vegetarian,
plant-based food begin for you?
2012, there is no vegan Asian food in town.
It's a good timing to do it.
Mena: Yes.
What's your clientele like here?
So I asked my customer where they're from.
They're from out of town.
40% are not really vegan, but they like to try.
Mena: And finally,
vegan barbecue pork buns.
Look at that.
Mmm, mmm.
Kenny: Amazing, right?
Amazing. It tastes like pork.
Yeah.
Mena: The soy, mushroom,
and squash filling in the centre of these pork buns is magic.
Wow.
You've got the barbecue flavour in there as well,
and the texture, and then the warm bum.
Phenomenal.
Thank you for serving me and helping me dine like an emperor.
Yum cha.
Yum cha!
♪
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Mena: For my last stop,
I wanted to try a spot that would rival
those long-standing Vegas steakhouses Penn mentioned,
for pure hedonistic flavour.
So I'm popping in to visit Chef Stephen Parker
at his very first brick n mortar restaurant, Down 2 Earth.
What kind of food do you do here at Down 2 Earth?
Comfort food that I try to elevate just a little bit.
I want to get the people that already eat vegan to come,
feel comfortable.
And the people that think they can't do it, to come in, try it,
and then get to feel comfortable with it.
All right, what are we making today, Chef?
I'm excited.
So it's going to be beef wellingtons.
A beef wellington. Get out of here.
You're making a vegan beef wellington.
Vegan beef wellington.
That's like one of the hardest things to make vegan.
It's a steak, isn't it?
It's a steak wrapped in, like, dough.
Yup.
How do we get into it? What's the first step?
Man, I've just excited. The dough and everything.
You want to get in there?
I'm just so excited. Yeah, let's do it, let's do it.
Chef starts by mixing spices
into his pea-based vegan ground beef
and starts building the wellington
with plant-based puff pastry and a mushroom pate.
The thing's full of flavour.
Okay. This smells good.
Lot of flavours coming from there.
Then you can get your meat texture
from the plant-based meat.
I like to throw a little bit of extra rolls in everything
And we're just gonna give it a nice roll.
Oh wow, all right.
We're just gonna make sure nothing gets out.
And that's it.
That's it. So break one out.
You think I would've gotten really good at this,
but I don't think you ever really get that good
at putting on latex gloves.
Now it's my turn to try wrapping up a wellington.
All right, pinch and tuck. Pinching and tucking.
And the moment of truth seen at the bottom.
And you're gonna want to check the bottom.
Yeah, baby.
Let's go.
Yeah, let's go.
We chuck those wellingtons in the oven.
And while things are cooking,
Chef whips up some sautéed veg and potatoes for the sides.
And jackpot, the wellingtons are doneso.
Look at that. That looks perfect.
Beautifully cooked.
I'm gonna cut it. You're gonna plate it.
Okay, you're gonna cut it. I'm gonna plate it.
Look at that. Killed it.
Oh yeah, and you've got that colour you wanted.
In the very centre, it's nice and pink.
Oh, the tweezers.
Stephen: Instead of the fancy tweezers.
I like it.
So we're gonna go with the--
with the wellington, we're gonna kind of fan this way.
Okay.
Fan the wellington, potatoes here,
stack the vegetables.
All right, I think I've got it. I think I've got it.
(Chuckles)
It's done. It is done.
So and the last step is the most important step,
which is me eating it.
Is that what we do in Vegas?
Let's go.
All right.
In true Vegas style, Chef sizzled up a whole other dish
before I could even sit down.
This looks amazing, Chef.
And we've got a new edition to the family.
What is this?
This is the fish fried sandwich.
So we actually get huge mushroom caps.
Batter it up, fry it, turn it into a sandwich.
Mena: Amazing.
And I've never had a vegan fish fry sandwich.
I used to love fish sandwiches growing up.
So this is actually inspired by, like, my grandma.
Yeah, yeah 'cause that's the bomb, right?
Grandma's fried fish.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Look at this. Here we go.
All right.
♪
Mmm.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
You've got that texture from the mushroom of like
a fish filet so this is-- this is phenomenal.
Okay, enough fish. We've got some beef to settle.
I want to dig into this because, like I said,
I've never had a vegan beef wellington.
It looks so good.
You put a lot of thought into all these components, clearly.
Well, it's important that we put love into it.
Yeah, of course.
(Chewing)
Mmm.
Mmm!
Wow.
It's not very often I get to sit down and eat my own food,
but you know, it's pretty good.
Mmm.
Amazing.
You know what, even before I went plant-based,
I never even had a beef wellington
so this is literally my first beef wellington.
I can see why people love it. It's so amazing.
The mushroom paste gives it
a nice kind of earthy umami flavour.
That's phenomenal.
Chef is another Vegas transplant
from further down the west coast.
You grew up in California, is that right?
Yeah, we grew up in the Bay Area so Oakland, California.
Graduated culinary school in San Francisco.
We moved out here 'cause I did an internship
at one of the casinos and I just never left.
How have you seen Vegas change over the years
'cause I feel like it's--
Yeah.
Everybody thinks Vegas, everybody thinks the strip,
but it's so much more than that.
You know, the community's getting bigger,
people moving from everywhere else
so the local community is getting bigger.
And you know, when you first come to Vegas,
you see everybody, you know, I'm go the strip,
we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that.
But then once you kind of get over that part,
start checking out some-- oh man, there's some--
you know, you start finding some hidden gems
and you know, we're probably one of them.
Mena: Yeah, yeah absolutely.
Absolutely.
And I think what's amazing about this too, you've created here
a more fine dish that is really associated with, like,
refined cooking, really culinary mastery.
And then you've got just some home cooking,
comfort food in this fried fish sandwich.
We like to have fun. We like to be creative.
We just like to be inviting.
Can't wait to come back and try the pizzas,
the truffle mac and cheese.
I'm gonna try the whole menu, Chef.
You'll be back plenty of times.
All right, thank you so much.
Thank you, thank you.
♪
And after absolutely stuffing my face,
that's a wrap on Vegas, baby,
where the chefs always insist on loading up the table,
where the desserts are always decadent,
where you always have second and third helpings,
where every day is cheat day, and the plant-based food scene
is rolling sevens every single time.
♪
(Whirring)
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